Harry Reids Unicorns: Where Are Senate Republicans?

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) has said “Millionaire job creators are like unicorn,” – impossible to find. Forbes did some fact checking:

Harry Reid

[REID] “Millionaire job creators are like unicorns. They’re impossible to find, and they don’t exist… Only a tiny fraction of people making more than a million dollars, probably less than 1 percent, are small business owners. And only a tiny fraction of that tiny fraction are traditional job creators…Most of these businesses are hedge fund managers or wealthy lawyers. They don’t do much hiring and they don’t need tax breaks.”

1) The IRS says 236,883 tax filers make $1 million or more annually. Reid claims only 1% are small business owners

[GREGORY] I do not know what Harry means when he says “a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction.” If we let 5 percent represent Harry’s “tiny fraction,” we are left with 118 businesses owners who earn a million or more and create jobs. Yes, they are only slightly less rare than unicorns, if Harry is to be believed.

Gregory found 16,000 hedge fund managers and lawyers with incomes over $1 million per year. The incomes of all of America’s millionaires totals $623 Billion…

…on which they pay the highest average rate (30 percent) of any tax bracket. (Either Warren Buffet’s secretary has an incompetent tax accountant or Buffet has some pretty juicy tax breaks. I think the latter is more likely). A 1.9 percent tax surcharge on million-dollar-earners would yield $11 billion, assuming those shifty millionaires take no evasive action to avoid the tax.

Gregory found through IRS reports that “businesses and professions, partnerships, and S-corporations” earn $221 Billion, and if Harry Reid, the U.S. Senate Supreme Leader is right, they do it all without hiring anyone! Millionaire hedge fund owners and attorneys – a “trivial number.”

I expect every Republican in the Senate to be issuing their statement damning Harry Reid’s lies any day now, or…right after they return from their Christmas ski trip or the shopping trip to Milan. Right. Read the entire conclusion here.